Denver is an excellent choice for monitoring real time pollution data. Local geography and weather patterns form persistent inversion layers that trap pollution, resulting in routine air quality warnings. The bay area is interesting due to vastly differing conditions at different parts of the area.

It's tough. I've lived/visited numerous cities with different approaches, and things seem to gravitate to one of two stable arrangements: Ubiquitous bathrooms or Scarce bathrooms. Middling arrangements put so much use on the available restrooms that the business owners become frustrated and restrict access.

I'm not sure what the difference is, but for some reason nearly all of California has scarce restrooms. Places like Denver are the opposite.

LunaticTippy writes: For those unfamiliar with Ingress, the game has GPS coordinate portals that correspond to real world locations. Many public locations with historical or artistic interest are submitted by players. Due to protests portals located at concentration camps are being removed.Link to Original Source

Coffee Mate and other non dairy creamers are made of trans fats. I prefer black coffee unless it is burned, in which case I resort to half and half. Many restaurants and stores and workplaces only carry nondairy creamer and burned coffee so I welcome this FDA decision.

Yikes, frostbite is awful. I hope you don't have pain from it! I'm a big fan of dry weather. Colorado's climate is so easy for me - the cold isn't as bad as humid sea level cold and the heat isn't as bad as humid sea level heat. I think the thinner air and generally low humidity make everything easier to take.

In Phoenix when it is hot the RH is rarely much above 20%, at which levels the impact on human body is neutral. 110F @ 30% RH means it "feels" like 122, and I have heard of India having much higher RH than even that. 35% feels like 129F and it gets seriously crazy above that.

You don't know what the big deal is because you've probably never experienced humid heat. 90F is extremely dangerous at 100%RH and people die from it all the time.

You're overlooking a few key facts. Most people have a caloric surplus which results in weight gain unless they go to some effort to expend energy. Many people join a gym or find some leisure activity that they typically drive to.

Biking to work eliminates the caloric surplus in many cases, and reduces the need for gym or other leisure activity. The math isn't as clear as you think. Bikers aren't always turning new calories into travel, they are often turning calories otherwise destined to turn into fat or be spent at a gym into travel.

In many cases replacing a car commute with a bike commute eliminates several energy uses for a much lower carbon footprint.

If you have a dinner party and want to make coffee for everybody, please don't put pod after pod into the keurig. It is very wasteful and takes a long time.

Instead, drive to the local store, buy some bulk coffee and a drip coffeemaker, drive home and make a pot or two. Then throw the coffeemaker and leftover coffee into the garbage. It is faster, cheaper, and less wasteful than those damn pods. Plus, it will taste better unless you buy farmer bros.

People have different tastes. I enjoy espresso occasionally, but the gritty particulate is something I have to be in the mood for. My normal cup is heavily filtered, I prefer the clean taste of nice thick Chemex filters. To me, the best tasting coffee is made from water boiled in glass, poured through a thick filter into glass, and drank from ceramic. I'd love to have a vacuum extractor to speed the process, but something can be said for making a time consuming ritual of something so enjoyable.